The Complete Mainframe Professional Course – 4 Courses in 1
This was the first course i released online in 2017. It is a collection of 4 courses and that is why i have called it “The Complete Mainframe Professional Course”. It is my attempt to teach Mainframes to those who have no experience in Mainframes.
Table of Contents
Mainframe Course Overview
This mainframe course is divided into the following parts.
- Introduction to Mainframes
- TSO/ISPF
- JOB Control Language
- VSAM
- COBOL
- Introduction to CICS
Let me expain in detail what you will learn in each section.
Introduction to Mainframes
This section is an introduction to Mainframes for those who have no knowledge of Mainframes. So, you will learn all the important information related to Mainframes. Such as the History of the Mainframes, the Technologies used on the Mainframes, the IBM system 360 and much more.
TSO/ISPF
TSO stands for Time Sharing Option. TSO allows multiple users to connect to a Mainframe at the same time. In this section i will explain all the major TSO commands on a Mainframe.
ISPF stands for Interactive Services Productivity Facility. ISPF is a menu-driven interface. It allows the users to interact with a Mainframe using a hierarchical set of menus. ISPF also have its own set of commands. In this section i will explain all these commands in detail.
JOB Control Language – The Scripting language on a Mainframe
JCL or JOB Control Language is the scripting language used on a Mainframe. JCL can submit jobs to the system. A JOB is one unit of work. So, we can submit a JCL to compile a COBOL program and run it using JCL.
VSAM
VSAM stands for Virtual Storage Access Method. In this section i will explain all the major VSAM datasets such as KSDS, ESDS, RRDS and LDS.
COBOL – The most used programming language on a Mainframe
COBOL stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language. It was developed in 1960s specifically for business users. In this section i will explain in detail the syntax and uses of COBOL. You will be able to write a COBOL program on your own after completing this section.
Introduction to CICS – The only Mainframe Course which teach this topic
CICS is the transaction server on a Mainframes. It stands for Customer Information Control System. This server can run applications on a Mainframe. CICS is explained in this section.
This Mainframe course is available on Udemy. You can watch video preview of this course by going to the following link:
The course is available at the link: TSO-ISPF course
I also have articles on how you can complete the Master the Mainframe challenge. This challenge teaches you a lot about Mainframes as well. You can find these articles at the following link: MTM solution.
hi i am currently working on microfocus cobol on unix platform of 2.5 years experience i wish to learn mainframe and switch the job which is the best suitable course for me
since you already know cobol, you can easily learn mainframe for free. You only should have access to a mainframe. There are channels on youtube which teach mainframe. Here is the learning path:
1. TSO/ISPF – these are just commands that are used on mainframe. takes 15-20 minutes to learn these. These are just like ls, mkdir etc on unix.
2. JCL – used to compile, run programs on mainframe.
3. COBOL – you already know it.
4. Files on mainframe – A file on a mainframe is called a DATASET. many types of datasets are there. just like on windows there are many files like text files, word files, pdf etc. On mainframe there is PS, PDS, VSAM, GDG etc. Extremely easy concepts as well. takes 2-3 hours max.
5. DB2 – database on mainframe. Learn DB2 SQL to work on it.
6. CICS – Online transaction server of mainframe. Looks difficult but is actually easy. Projects like airline ticket booking, ATM withdrawal etc run on CICS.
You have to get access to a mainframe with z/OS if you want to learn all of these. z/OS is operating system used on mainframe, just like windows, ubuntu is for pc.
z/OS is not free and there is no free way to get access to a mainframe. This is the main problem in learning mainframe.
You can only get an older operating system called MVS for free. It is available here: https://mainframenation.com/jcl/practice-jcl-using-mvs-turnkey-3-8j-system/
IBM also provides this education for free: https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/skills